Chemical protective clothing comfort study: thermal insulation and evaporative resistance from fabric to garment

The relationship between the Rct and Ret of textile material used in CPC and that obtained from CPC garment was investigated. It was found that the Rct and Ret of CPC fabric are reliable predictor for the Rct and Ret of CPC garments respectively. Air gap contributes significantly to the increase of the Rct of CPC garments and fabrics. Heat dissipation by water vapor transfer through CPC is a complex process and different from other kinds of clothing due to its low permeability or impermeability. Further studies on the influential factors of Ret of CPC garments are needed

Analysis of heat stress associated with wearing chemical protective clothing using a numerical model

A numerical model was applied to evaluate heat stress under different thermal environmental conditions, activity intensities, and the effect of movement status on clothing properties when wearing a typical CPC. It was concluded that the ambient temperature and metabolic rate is strongly associated with heat stress and reduced the tolerance time. Although the manikin movement greatly affected the thermal insulation and evaporative resistance of CPC, the effects of movement on heat stress can be neglected

New Region-Scalable Discriminant and Fitting Energy Functional for Driving Geometric Active Contours in Medical Image Segmentation

We propose a novel region-based geometric active contour model that uses region-scalable discriminant and fitting energy functional for handling the intensity inhomogeneity and weak boundary problems in medical image segmentation. The region-scalable discriminant and fitting energy functional is defined to capture the image intensity characteristics in local and global regions for driving the evolution of active contour. The discriminant term in the model aims at separating background and foreground in scalable regions while the fitting term tends to fit the intensity in these regions. This model is then transformed into a variational level set formulation with a level set regularization term for accurate computation. The new model utilizes intensity information in the local and global regions as much as possible; so it not only handles better intensity inhomogeneity, but also allows more robustness to noise and more flexible initialization in comparison to the original global region and regional-scalable based models. Experimental results for synthetic and real medical image segmentation show the advantages of the proposed method in terms of accuracy and robustness

Investigation of the Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient of the Hand and Fingers in Firefighter Gloves Using a Thermal Hand

The heat transfer coefficients of the hands are critical inputs of the thermoregulation model that can simulate thermal responses of the hand and fingers. Besides, the hand has a greater surface area to mass ratio and complex anthropometric parameters, thus is extremely important in heat transfer and thermoregulation. However, the convective heat transfer coefficients of the fingers, palm, and dorsal of the hand are not fully investigated and understood. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for full understanding of the convective heat transfer coefficients in both the whole-hand and regional segments. The results of this study will provide guidance for the thermal model development, cold and burn injuries assessment, and design of high-performance protective gloves

Investigating the Effects of Size on Glove Thermal Insulation Using a Thermal Hand

Thermal insulation for gloves has also been measured to assess comfort using thermal hands. However, the previous studies mainly focused on the thermal insulation among different types of gloves, rather than across different-sized gloves of the same type. Actually, the air gap thickness and volume between the skin of the hand and the gloves varies with the size of the gloves and on different locations on the hand, thereby affecting the heat and mass transfer between the skin and its thermal environment. Consequently, different-sized gloves will affect the thermal responses of hand and fingers as well as the thermal comfort. To design the next generation of highperformance gloves, it is critical to investigate the effects of size/fit on thermal insulation of gloves to enable both thermal protection and thermal comfort. In this study, the thermal insulation of two types of gloves with different sizes was measured and the effect of size/fit on thermal insulation was established

Evaluation of Raised Pavement Markers

Task Order 328In the State of New Jersey, raised pavement markers (RPMs) are used along all centerlines and skip lines, regardless of traffic volume, roadway geometry, or roadway classification. The extensive use of RPMs has raised interest in understanding 1) whether this significant investment generates variant safety benefits at different locations; 2) whether there are alternatives or modifications to the existing RPMs; and 3) how to optimize the installation, monitoring, and maintenance of RPMs and their promising alternatives in order to attain a more cost-effective safety improvement. This study reviewed the relevant literature and provided a methodological framework for quantifying the safety effectiveness and implementation costs of RPMs and their alternatives given specified road and traffic characteristics. A luminance measurement method was developed to allow researchers to estimate the luminance of these devices and to compare different reflective pavement markers and their alternatives regarding the ability to provide visual delineation. The study also analyzed the installation practices in various states and proposed guidelines for the use of RPMs and relevant alternatives accounting for various road classification, geometry, and traffic factors. Finally, the study developed a computer-aided decision support tool that can be used to calculate the life cycle cost of RPMs and other alternatives, thereby supporting decisions with respect to the optimal use of safety investment

Chromatin Remodeling of Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastasis is Mediated by an HGF‐PU.1‐DPP4 Axis

Colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasizes mainly to the liver, which accounts for the majority of CRC-related deaths. Here it is shown that metastatic cells undergo specific chromatin remodeling in the liver. Hepatic growth factor (HGF) induces phosphorylation of PU.1, a pioneer factor, which in turn binds and opens chromatin regions of downstream effector genes. PU.1 increases histone acetylation at the DPP4 locus. Precise epigenetic silencing by CRISPR/dCas9KRAB or CRISPR/dCas9HDAC revealed that individual PU.1-remodeled regulatory elements collectively modulate DPP4 expression and liver metastasis growth. Genetic silencing or pharmacological inhibition of each factor along this chromatin remodeling axis strongly suppressed liver metastasis. Therefore, microenvironment-induced epimutation is an important mechanism for metastatic tumor cells to grow in their new niche. This study presents a potential strategy to target chromatin remodeling in metastatic cancer and the promise of repurposing drugs to treat metastasis

PANDORA-seq expands the repertoire of regulatory small RNAs by overcoming RNA modifications

Although high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has greatly advanced small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) discovery, the currently widely used complementary DNA library construction protocol generates biased sequencing results. This is partially due to RNA modifications that interfere with adapter ligation and reverse transcription processes, which prevent the detection of sncRNAs bearing these modifications. Here, we present PANDORA-seq (panoramic RNA display by overcoming RNA modification aborted sequencing), employing a combinatorial enzymatic treatment to remove key RNA modifications that block adapter ligation and reverse transcription. PANDORA-seq identified abundant modified sncRNAs—mostly transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) and ribosomal RNA-derived small RNAs (rsRNAs)—that were previously undetected, exhibiting tissue-specific expression across mouse brain, liver, spleen and sperm, as well as cell-specific expression across embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and HeLa cells. Using PANDORA-seq, we revealed unprecedented landscapes of microRNA, tsRNA and rsRNA dynamics during the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells. Importantly, tsRNAs and rsRNAs that are downregulated during somatic cell reprogramming impact cellular translation in ESCs, suggesting a role in lineage differentiation

Study on the Present Situation and Influencing Factors of Farmers' Agricultural Insurance Demand in Poverty-Stricken Mountainous Areas: Survey and Analysis of 115 Farmers in Enshi Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province

Agricultural insurance can avoid the risks of agricultural production and operation to a large extent, promote agricultural development and increase farmers' income, and lay a solid foundation for rural revitalization. At present, China's agricultural insurance is in the stage of all-round development, and there are still many problems, especially the farmers' mistrust of agricultural insurance and their weak willingness to participate in agricultural insurance. Based on the data and information obtained from the field visit and questionnaire survey in Enshi Prefecture, this paper makes an empirical analysis on the factors affecting farmers' agricultural insurance demand by using binary Logistic regression model. According to the conclusion of the analysis, this paper puts forward the corresponding measures and suggestions from the three dimensions of the government, insurance companies and farmers